I guess the problem of america is that they have started to become a non-democratic democracy.
What I mean by this is that you still have most of the democratic structurs, but since you have two powerful partys which want to lead the country in a similar way, you find yourself in the voting cabin, and even if you trust the voting system, you have to choose between devil and hell. (do you say so in english? - in case not: you can choose the war of bush against 'terror' or the warof kerry against 'terror') Meaning, if you are against that war, you can't choose from kerry or bush, since they are both supporting it. So you have Naider (or however he's called) as the 'only alternative' - he is (to my limited knowledge) against that war. If you look at statistics, you will find out that quite many people are against that war. But why didn't all of these choose Naider? Because he doesn't stand a chance. He didn't have that media presence the other kandidates have (f.e. he didn't participate in these duells of the two mentioned candidates), and since that's important in the USA...
"The USA isn't part of the Commonwealth, however. I'm not absolutely certain, but last time I checked Australia's immigration website, the requirements were quite high to get in: having a job already lined up was one big requirement."
What I know is that the Comonwealth still exists today, but is far less important than a few hundred years ago. And at least to britain it is somewhat easy for people from former colonies to immigrate.
"Why is Germany so closed to immigration from places like the US, when it's so easy for Turks to get in? They're not part of the EU yet."
You are absolutely right. I don't know why the Turks get in easyly, maybe they are using the ways the law provides (which aren't sufficent for the current situation). If the Turks get into the EU isn't yet certain, but it's likely (even if many europeans have problems with that idea) - at least if you don't stick to the next two decades.
I haven't thought about climatic changes... you mean always Fahrenheit? (We have Celsius over here, and 120C would be... far to hot for a human beeing...)
There are a dozen problems you are likely to encounter when you move from one country to another. In my opionion it's going to get easier.
"Luckily, the US hasn't completely turned into a corporate-controlled police state, yet."
Yepp. YET. You might not notice, or notice to late (where you doesn't mean you, but 'most average american citizens') - let's hope that it's avoided. Germany is much more away from a corporate-controlled dictatorship, since we had dictatorship (ideology-controlled) last century (WWII), and we have learned at least some things from that - at least in my opinion.
Greetings,
Barkpingu
"This new regime is corporate, immortal, and unkillable."
and it's likely to be somehow like the 'brave new world' described in the book 'the brave new world' (by aldous huxley).
So the question isn't: Are dictators bad or 'is terror evil' (which is answered with a yes by Bush and I guess by most people supporting him).
But the question is much more like: Is a democracy better if it stops to be one?
If you don't see the point in asking these questions: when Hitler came to power that prozess was seen (at his time) as somewhat democratic by most the people (the weimarer republik was to liberal), so they didn't know that they should revolt. Now we know that if there had been a revolt or something likely we wouldn't have that secound world war as we had it. We had that ugly war, and now we should try to make it better - and the current german constitution (called grundgesetz, written after the war 1949) is good at avoiding any (or at least most) agressive wars.
Nowadays, the US make laws which shouldn't be. And some (US-citizens/american Slashdoters) aren't sure if they should revolt. Is a democracy still a democracy if you have two parties which dominate the politic, and aren't really different when it comes to their aims?
What's really amazing about that book is the fact that it's pretty old, it was written in 1932.
for more information you might wanna start here:
http://www.huxley.net/
You're absolutely right, and I don't mean to critize you, by the way, I'm a European, so I might have got some points wrong. But we have a global world today, so it doesn't really matter - or does it?
Greetings
Barkpingu
"I'm afraid that moving to another industrialized country may be something much easier said than done." Britain Austrailia These two countries are (at least to my knowledge) pretty open for you - culture is mostly the same, democracy is also there, and the same english (or 'just' diffent forms of english), and they are open to each other because they once were the commonwealth (and still are). As far as I'm informed, this commonwealth includes some regulations which make moving in another country of this commonwealth quite easy, a reason why many indians... live in britain (they were colonised by them, but now have gained independence).
In EU (where I live) it's different. Within the EU there are not so many limiting regulations, so if you speak the language of the country you want to move to, your only really important problem is the cultural differenses and the distance to your home country (were some family/friends are likely to live). Ok, if you want to move from outside to the EU inside it, you have some problems. In germany I don't know any way except to seek for (political) asylum, which is hardly applying for americans, and to marry someone from germany - something which should be corrected (especially here in germany).
So if there actually IS a reason (for you), you should at least give it a thought...
Canada is also pretty open to immigration (Bowling for Columbine alludes to that topic).
"Of course what would really help Linux is if the EU, China and other countries outside the US start vigorously using Linux." I live in the EU. We have similar problems here - Microsoft (and others) is really lobbying very hard. At the moment, we don't have software patentable, but some people (and lobbied politicans as well) don't know that we don't have that (or just pretend they do). But: We also got a respectable number of people/medium-sized business AGAINST software patents (the prozess of decision is quite a mess). Somewhat the same with DRM-enforcement: You (in the US) have the DMCA, which is tough. We (in the EU/Germany) have other laws, which aren't so tough. The industry clearly has the intend of influencing the laws, but there are still ways of somewhat 'free and fair use' if you know how to do so...;) (I guess that's because our government isn't as well organized as yours - in germany we have problems with 'little fights' of federal-level-government against state-level-government(s), and other reasons as well) And some of our governments are actually thinking of skipping to linux (some of them might already do, I don't know), you maybe know about Munich (big city, they want to switch about 14000 computers to linux/Open office). From what I can tell Microsoft is really afraid of that to happen, because there are many other cities thinking of switching - if they are able to keep Munich from switching, I don't know (yet) (but I do know that I don't want them to succeed).
So: If you want to flew, we in the EU actually use Linux (at least more than in the US I think) and you would be welcome. We don't have these 'neo convervatives'/'radical Christian bigots' at all. Nevertheless, we have loads of other problems to solve...
Greetings from 'the other side of that little lake'
that are some interesting thoughts, I would like to add mine.
I'm non-US, and I think the development you mentioned isn't limited to US only and the revolution (or at least the 'little revolution') would be a global one. I live in germany, and in germany noone ever has been sued (Disclaimer: I don't know everything, and maybe I fail to express me properly in english) due to a law similar to the DMCA (that's afaik the law in the US that is about that subject). If you do filesharing (of musik/video files and in germany) for a commercial reason, the law states somewhat clearly that you get yourself imprisoned (or a tough finanzial punishment). If you do filesharing for private reasons (which is f.e. if you 'only' have a few hundred mp3s) the law is quite unclear - to my knowledge noone has ever been sued, but they had to pay to avoid a accusation. Maybe that's intended by the Industry since the anti-pirate-ads (in germany) are pretty much FUD. They are somehow quite effizient, since there is hardly anyone who knows what real-life punishment they REALLY have to expect (since the industry is spreading their fear-uncertainity-doubt-punishment 'theory').
That's a try to compare the US with the rest of the world. I hope I didn't fail totally.
greetings
Barkpingu
Slashdot Mirror
I guess the problem of america is that they have started to become a non-democratic democracy.
What I mean by this is that you still have most of the democratic structurs, but since you have two powerful partys which want to lead the country in a similar way, you find yourself in the voting cabin, and even if you trust the voting system, you have to choose between devil and hell. (do you say so in english? - in case not: you can choose the war of bush against 'terror' or the warof kerry against 'terror')
Meaning, if you are against that war, you can't choose from kerry or bush, since they are both supporting it. So you have Naider (or however he's called) as the 'only alternative' - he is (to my limited knowledge) against that war. If you look at statistics, you will find out that quite many people are against that war. But why didn't all of these choose Naider? Because he doesn't stand a chance. He didn't have that media presence the other kandidates have (f.e. he didn't participate in these duells of the two mentioned candidates), and since that's important in the USA...
"The USA isn't part of the Commonwealth, however. I'm not absolutely certain, but last time I checked Australia's immigration website, the requirements were quite high to get in: having a job already lined up was one big requirement." What I know is that the Comonwealth still exists today, but is far less important than a few hundred years ago. And at least to britain it is somewhat easy for people from former colonies to immigrate. "Why is Germany so closed to immigration from places like the US, when it's so easy for Turks to get in? They're not part of the EU yet." You are absolutely right. I don't know why the Turks get in easyly, maybe they are using the ways the law provides (which aren't sufficent for the current situation). If the Turks get into the EU isn't yet certain, but it's likely (even if many europeans have problems with that idea) - at least if you don't stick to the next two decades. I haven't thought about climatic changes... you mean always Fahrenheit? (We have Celsius over here, and 120C would be... far to hot for a human beeing...) There are a dozen problems you are likely to encounter when you move from one country to another. In my opionion it's going to get easier. "Luckily, the US hasn't completely turned into a corporate-controlled police state, yet." Yepp. YET. You might not notice, or notice to late (where you doesn't mean you, but 'most average american citizens') - let's hope that it's avoided. Germany is much more away from a corporate-controlled dictatorship, since we had dictatorship (ideology-controlled) last century (WWII), and we have learned at least some things from that - at least in my opinion. Greetings, Barkpingu
"This new regime is corporate, immortal, and unkillable." and it's likely to be somehow like the 'brave new world' described in the book 'the brave new world' (by aldous huxley). So the question isn't: Are dictators bad or 'is terror evil' (which is answered with a yes by Bush and I guess by most people supporting him). But the question is much more like: Is a democracy better if it stops to be one? If you don't see the point in asking these questions: when Hitler came to power that prozess was seen (at his time) as somewhat democratic by most the people (the weimarer republik was to liberal), so they didn't know that they should revolt. Now we know that if there had been a revolt or something likely we wouldn't have that secound world war as we had it. We had that ugly war, and now we should try to make it better - and the current german constitution (called grundgesetz, written after the war 1949) is good at avoiding any (or at least most) agressive wars. Nowadays, the US make laws which shouldn't be. And some (US-citizens/american Slashdoters) aren't sure if they should revolt. Is a democracy still a democracy if you have two parties which dominate the politic, and aren't really different when it comes to their aims? What's really amazing about that book is the fact that it's pretty old, it was written in 1932. for more information you might wanna start here: http://www.huxley.net/ You're absolutely right, and I don't mean to critize you, by the way, I'm a European, so I might have got some points wrong. But we have a global world today, so it doesn't really matter - or does it? Greetings Barkpingu
"I'm afraid that moving to another industrialized country may be something much easier said than done." ... live in britain (they were colonised by them, but now have gained independence).
Britain
Austrailia
These two countries are (at least to my knowledge) pretty open for you - culture is mostly the same, democracy is also there, and the same english (or 'just' diffent forms of english), and they are open to each other because they once were the commonwealth (and still are). As far as I'm informed, this commonwealth includes some regulations which make moving in another country of this commonwealth quite easy, a reason why many indians
In EU (where I live) it's different. Within the EU there are not so many limiting regulations, so if you speak the language of the country you want to move to, your only really important problem is the cultural differenses and the distance to your home country (were some family/friends are likely to live).
Ok, if you want to move from outside to the EU inside it, you have some problems. In germany I don't know any way except to seek for (political) asylum, which is hardly applying for americans, and to marry someone from germany - something which should be corrected (especially here in germany).
So if there actually IS a reason (for you), you should at least give it a thought...
Canada is also pretty open to immigration (Bowling for Columbine alludes to that topic).
Greatings from Europe,
Barkpingu
"Of course what would really help Linux is if the EU, China and other countries outside the US start vigorously using Linux." ;) (I guess that's because our government isn't as well organized as yours - in germany we have problems with 'little fights' of federal-level-government against state-level-government(s), and other reasons as well)
I live in the EU.
We have similar problems here - Microsoft (and others) is really lobbying very hard. At the moment, we don't have software patentable, but some people (and lobbied politicans as well) don't know that we don't have that (or just pretend they do). But: We also got a respectable number of people/medium-sized business AGAINST software patents (the prozess of decision is quite a mess). Somewhat the same with DRM-enforcement: You (in the US) have the DMCA, which is tough. We (in the EU/Germany) have other laws, which aren't so tough. The industry clearly has the intend of influencing the laws, but there are still ways of somewhat 'free and fair use' if you know how to do so...
And some of our governments are actually thinking of skipping to linux (some of them might already do, I don't know), you maybe know about Munich (big city, they want to switch about 14000 computers to linux/Open office). From what I can tell Microsoft is really afraid of that to happen, because there are many other cities thinking of switching - if they are able to keep Munich from switching, I don't know (yet) (but I do know that I don't want them to succeed).
So: If you want to flew, we in the EU actually use Linux (at least more than in the US I think) and you would be welcome. We don't have these 'neo convervatives'/'radical Christian bigots' at all. Nevertheless, we have loads of other problems to solve...
Greetings from 'the other side of that little lake'
Barkpingu
that are some interesting thoughts, I would like to add mine. I'm non-US, and I think the development you mentioned isn't limited to US only and the revolution (or at least the 'little revolution') would be a global one. I live in germany, and in germany noone ever has been sued (Disclaimer: I don't know everything, and maybe I fail to express me properly in english) due to a law similar to the DMCA (that's afaik the law in the US that is about that subject). If you do filesharing (of musik/video files and in germany) for a commercial reason, the law states somewhat clearly that you get yourself imprisoned (or a tough finanzial punishment). If you do filesharing for private reasons (which is f.e. if you 'only' have a few hundred mp3s) the law is quite unclear - to my knowledge noone has ever been sued, but they had to pay to avoid a accusation. Maybe that's intended by the Industry since the anti-pirate-ads (in germany) are pretty much FUD. They are somehow quite effizient, since there is hardly anyone who knows what real-life punishment they REALLY have to expect (since the industry is spreading their fear-uncertainity-doubt-punishment 'theory'). That's a try to compare the US with the rest of the world. I hope I didn't fail totally. greetings Barkpingu